Zia… Galiena’s Master Bedroom

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Double doors at the end of the hallway opened into a master bedroom suite.

It was palatial, bursting with opulence with a deep jewel-tone decor, and took up the length of the side of the condo. Zia wasn’t good with dimensions or square footage but put the room at about a third of the size of the meeting room back at the Lair.

Like the first room of the condo, this one had most of its external wall made of glass. Thick, expensive drapery stood open appealing to the late sun to come through the wall of windows.

Inside, the room was divided into three living spaces. To her left was a sleeping area with a huge bed that sat against the wall of that side of the room. The bed furnishings looked like they’d been staged by a designer for a magazine shoot.

The area where they stood was a reception gathering that spilled into a seating space. More deep jewel-tones infused the decor with a vibrancy that made the area pop. Colorful plush furniture was assembled in an intimate configuration for conversation and more.

It was the area to her right that drew out a gasp from Zia. Unlike the other sections, this one was devoid of regular furniture and decoration. It held a large spherical cage in the far corner, an array of tools that looked like either torture devices, sex toys, or both and… three chairs lined up in front of the odd display. Each contained the diminished form of her family members.

Her brother’s head hung low with his chin almost touching his chest. Her father and mother had glazed eyes, and blank expressions like their souls had vacated their bodies.

It took everything for Zia not to run into Greg’s arms for support. Seething anger rose to replace that need with another one, to free her family and make Galiena pay.

“This is Matt. I repeat this is Matt,” Zia jumped at the lowered voice floating into her ear from the comm she still wore. “Zia, don’t try to answer, Greg wanted us to move to comms so you’d be aware of what’s going on from here. Hold on a little longer. We’re here to help get you and your family to safety.” Her heart beat a little faster at the surprise. Greg had been working a plan all along. To his brother, Matt said, “Greg, we’re here and set up in position as Lucien, and you instructed. Including you and I, Ajax, Blaise, Nolan, Rylan, Kylan, and Lucien are here and ready to do what we do.”

“What about your mates. I’d prefer they not participate. This Sorceress is dangerous and unpredictable.”

“This is Lucien. We’re already ahead of you on that. We couldn’t get them to stay at the Lair, but there was a compromise. Our mates are below over on the next block ready to render medical aid if needed. Give us the signal, and we’ll advance from the empty adjacent condo.”

Zia heard sounds from Greg that to the average listener would be mistaken as grunts and low clearings of his throat. In her comm, his words were clear.

“Thank you. We have eyes on Zia’s family. Lucien, does Miss Connie have the antidote yet?”

Lucien’s low voice came through crystal clear. “No, the Triplets are at the receiving area waiting for it to arrive. As soon as they have it and back to Miss Connie’s, she’ll be ready to work on getting Zia’s family back to health.”

“That’s a lot of ifs.” Greg didn’t look Zia’s way, but she knew enough to know he wanted more than one option.

“I hear you, Greg. I agree,” Lucien could be heard through the comm. “Stall long enough to locate anything that looks to be the cure for a powder dosing. Once you have it in sight, give us the call. If not, we come in uninvited… in T-minus nine minutes. To wait any longer, we tempt fate with building security figuring out what has happened.”

“Can you give me an idea of your location?”

Zia was amazed at how Greg’s voice was almost undetectable if one wasn’t aware of what he was up to.

Lucien came back through the comm. “Based on the blueprints of this building, we’re next to the master bedroom suite of your unit.”

“Good,” Greg almost breathed the word. “That’s where we are. You’ll have to find a way around a large bed posted next to that adjoining wall. While you do that, I’m doing a scan for magic emanations now. We’re on the opposite side of the room, so you’ll come in contact with four of her goons before reaching the main party.”

“Got it. Greg, Wise one, do your magic. We want to make this quick and as harmless as possible.”

“Besides Zia’s family, I don’t see anyone else who hasn’t been hexed, spelled, or possessed by the Sorceress. Then there are the illegals too.

“Understood. We’ve got your back. Try to get us in before we take down the wall if you can. Lucien out.”

Zia looked around aware that her eyes bugged out a little for the conversation she’d been privy to. The Dragofin Clan was here. They’d been right—they took care of family.

Family.

Unaware of what her body had done during the internal team conversation, Zia had inched close enough to her family to hear their labored breathing. They suffered, and it was all on her. Her mother’s voice was low but started to make sense as Zia worked up the nerve to look her mother in the face.

“Zia, my baby, is that you?” Leila asked.

Her speech slurred as she tried to speak with a swollen tongue.

“Yes, Mami, I’m here.”

“Quiet, you slut!” Galiena walked over to block Zia’s view from her mother. “You speak when I say and not before or after.”

The onset of anger quaked in the point of her stomach as Zia looked at the woman eye to eye. She didn’t blink, knowing that to do so would be a sign of weakness.

“How cute. You think you can take me on? Silly bitch, you still don’t realize the most important part. You don’t have a future.”

“Call me bitch one more time and I’ll—”

Galiena laughed. “You’ll what? I have your family at death’s door. Without my antidote, they die. And you? Your dumb ass has no power, no hope, and no clue what kind of shit storm you’re in. You see that cage? It was made especially for you. Think of it as a Faraday cage in reverse. Instead of protecting the contents from electricity and other forms of power, it’s made to concentrate them within its interior. One good thing to come out of this whole adventure is that you’re going to pay for what you’ve done, I’m going to get paid a shit ton of money and added power for this, and you’ll suffer for eternity. I’d say that’s a huge win—for me.”

Another loud grumble bubbled up from Zia’s stomach.

“If you shit on my hardwood floors, I’m going to make you pay for it—dearly. Hold that shit in. I have the perfect place for you to relieve yourself.” Galiena looked over to Greg to check his response. When he did nothing but continue to stare forward, she gathered a bit more bravado and added. “You see that cage? Get in.”

“Never.” Zia didn’t care. This woman was beside herself with insanity. “Why are you doing this?”

This time not only did the bottom of her stomach start to grumble again, but the base of her spine burned like a grease fire on water.

“Because I’m your judge and jury. You thought you got away with it, didn’t you?”

“Got away with what?”

“Zia, stop talking!” Greg’s voice boomed in her head. “Help is on the way for you and your family. We have to stall. Please, control your anger.”

Galiena sneered and walked toward Jeremy. Her prim and proper veneer slipped to reveal her common upbringing.

“You clueless, sloppy, fat bitch, stank-ass hoe,” Galiena caught herself, took a few breaths and spoke again. “Don’t you see? You’re my new acquisition, and this is where you do payback for killing my father.”

“What? I don’t know your father. I didn’t know you until I came to you for therapy.”

“Zia, please, listen to me. Stop talking. You’re just giving her fuel.”

Zia was too far gone with anger to listen to reason.

“Why are you so fucking evil? Boogie, my parents, my neighborhood? Why are you so hellbent on causing so much pain?”

“Because you started it. Isn’t that right Jeremy?”

The man looked at Galiena with a loyal admiration Zia didn’t know he could muster.

“Welcome to the last vestiges of life as you know. Take it all in because in a very short time you will cease to know anything but eternal suffering.”

Finally, true to her word to her mate, Zia fell quiet and watched.

“So, no reaction from that? I see. Well, then, come here Jeremy.”

The man went to Galiena without hesitation. Zia held herself still and fought to refrain from showing any emotions as the woman tongue-kissed him in front of her.

Once the kiss was over, Galiena looked at Zia and said, “It never gets old, kissing your ex.” The woman searched Zia’s face and frowned. “Nothing? You still don’t get it? Wow, I don’t know why I give you any benefit of the doubt.

“You’re as pathetic as ever. You didn’t even have the decency to learn your great heritage and use your gifts to make something of yourself. Look at you.” Hatred filled the orbs Galiena used as eyes. “A clueless lackluster spectacle of a useless waste of talent. I can’t stand the look of you. No wonder I was able to wreck your life. You suck at being anything remotely close to the strong heritage of our family’s powers of magic and sorcery. You couldn’t make a mouse take a free piece of cheese.”

Galiena was far from done laying into Zia. “You’re a lot like glass, slippery, transparent, and fragile. I still can’t for the life of me understand how you were able to trick my father into trusting you enough for you to kill him. Any woman worth her pussy could do what you do to men. You’re weak and pathetic.” She paused to sneer at Zia. “You aren’t worthy to have the gift. That’s why I’m going to take pleasure in stripping away all your life force and channeling it into something that finally benefits others.”

A pin drop could be heard in the room. Most of the inhabitants were wrapped up in the story Galiena weaved of Zia’s treachery.

Zia had no comeback for what she knew the woman built up to. There was no denying the fact that she’d done the deed she was accused of. Who was the real villain here?

Galiena had a far-off look in her eyes as she continued to speak.

“I was so proud that my father had finally made it to the States to stay with his successful cousin, Leila Carter, only to hear tales of her deceitful slutty daughter. He’d already done everything he could to send me over earlier to study and make something of myself. I did what I could to make him proud.

Galiena paused and looked at Zia for a reaction.

“That’s not what happened.” Zia hated how her voice was mumbled with shame at being found out for what she’d done.

Galiena continued, ignoring Zia’s weak statement. “When I found out that you killed my father, I did what I could to make sure you paid. I tried to get an investigation started to deaf ears of law enforcement. Everyone at home knew what you did and yet because of your family’s money and connections nothing was ever done to bring you to justice.”

Moisture stung Zia’s eyes as she tried to keep the first tear from falling. Even Greg’s waves of support weren’t enough to help her stand against her accuser. Galiena was right. She had killed her father. The monster that he was didn’t change the fact that he was someone’s father who loved him.

“What? You don’t have anything to say now?”

“Yes, why didn’t you just come for me instead of hurting so many other innocent people?”

“Because you hurt so many innocent people first. My grandmother was never the same after you killed her only son. My family went with no answers for years. We couldn’t bury my father. There was nobody to bury as your local police pointed out so many times. They said if there’s nobody, there’s no murder. My father was listed as missing until I had to finally declare him dead and bury an empty casket to bring a bit of closure to my family back home. Missing all these years—but you and I know the truth, don’t we Zia?”

The pain of guilt weighed down on Zia. She wanted to reach out to Greg for support but to do so would blow his cover. Zia had to face her past on her own.

“Galiena, why won’t you listen to reason? Stop the violence and pain. Let my family go, and we can work through this. I know there has to be some good still left in you.”

“Ha! I like how high and mighty you are. Weren’t you the one who told me with your mouth that you’d done something so bad that you’d never be able to forgive yourself? Did you not say that if you hadn’t been so selfish others wouldn’t have had to suffer for your mistakes? Didn’t you—”

“Stop talking, Galiena. You’re using my therapy sessions against me? How low and evil to must you be to do all this?”

“I’ve only begun to cause you pain. What you don’t realize is that I’ve been exacting my payback on you for years. Zia, Jeremy is my ex-husband. Isn’t that right, my pet?” Her attempt at a coo grated on Zia’s nerves as the man in question gave a curt nod of agreement. “When I found out that you actually showed interest in him I came to Alice and made it my business to take him from you. On my weekends away from school, I’d turn him out and do all the things you couldn’t do to please a man. I took what you desired the most at the time.”

“Why are you so twisted and evil? Who thinks to do something like that?”

“Oh, grow up. No one’s purely evil. Quit telling yourself that to make you feel better about the fact that you’re a straight-up murderer. How about this? In the words of one of my favorite movies—‘if my answers frighten you then you should cease asking scary questions.’ ”

White hot fire drove a searing path up the back of Zia’s spine in a force so great she doubled over.

“Greg, Lucien here,” the voice was enough of a pattern interrupt to give Zia the reprieve and reset to overcome her aching body. She stood and found Greg to see him staring at a trunk next to the cage in the corner where most of the group had congregated. Lucien came through again. “You have four minutes to wrap it up. Confirm your progress.”

“Confirmed, there’s a chest in the corner of the far end of the room where we’re located. Once you create the distraction, I’ll focus on getting the chest and Zia. Have the others grab her folks.”

“What about the Sorceress? Do we capture or expel?”

“We attempt to capture. She could be a valuable asset to the Galactic Council with her knowledge of working with the Group.”

“Confirmed. Three minutes.”

Zia had to make sure the woman stayed put until their team could make their move. She was about to ask another question to keep the woman speaking when her mother’s voice began to form words.

Leila’s eyes were bloodshot and dazed, much like her father’s but still, the woman tried to speak.

“What’s that old woman? You unleashed your brat into the world, and now you want to try to defend her?” Galiena asked.

“I did it. I did, not her. I did it. It was me. I was the one. I did it,” Leila said in a continuous loop.

“What is she saying?” Jeremy asked, moving over toward Leila. For a split second, Zia could swear she saw a look of the old Jeremy’s eyes come into focus with concern for her mother. It might have been a mirage or her mind playing tricks as his face returned to its normal smirk. He paused to listen. “She’s saying she did it.”

Galiena was unconcerned as her eyes refused to leave Zia for one moment. “Did what?”

A hush fell to allow Leila’s words to amplify.

“It was me. I did it. I killed Gabriel, not her. I had to protect my baby.” With eyes of clarity, Leila looked up and over to Galiena and spoke with more volume. “Your father was a monster. He raped and got my thirteen-year-old daughter pregnant. He tried to kill her when he found out, and she wouldn’t allow him to touch her again. It was my fault. I didn’t believe the rumors back home of him being a pedophile. I believed him when he said he was innocent. I believed him when he said he had a daughter older than mine and would never think of harming any child. I was the one who talked my husband into letting him come to live with us. And it was me who killed him when I found him over my daughter in the dirt of our backyard trying to rape her again.”

Leila’s strength came back to the woman Zia had known all her life. Her mother’s voice grew stronger as she continued to speak. The words were sure, strong and full of truth.

“You were duped and fooled. I knew you didn’t know about your father since you came to the States before him. Didn’t you ever stop to think for one moment why you were sent to live with your mother’s family? Why did they refuse to allow you to see him when he came to the States? And, why he never reached out to you? Your grandfather on your mother’s side told me after I found out about what he did to Zia. He wanted to make sure he let me know why you were with him and not your father. He and your grandmother let me know that it was your mother that caught him attempting to touch you. You were too young to remember. She told them it was while he gave you a bath when you were smaller. He touched you in inappropriate places.”

“Lies, all lies! You don’t know anything about my family. I was loved and had the best life outside of what your family did.”

Leila stayed the course of her tale. “She managed to keep him away from you until you were old enough to be able to come to the States. Your mother loved you enough to leave him and protect you. I wasn’t as smart. In my ego-driven blindness to have a great reputation back home, I overlooked all the signs. I put my selfish need to be adored and worshipped as the benevolent rich family member who had the power to help over the protection and safety of my baby.”

Leila’s head drooped for a moment until she struggled to hold it back up. It was obvious she fought against the powerful drugs swirling around in her system to have her say. Zia noticed Greg out her periphery. The etch of a stiff granite scowl was the only outward indicator of his intense anger. Seeing him helped her to endure this vulnerable exposure of her family’s dark secrets.

Zia’s mother’s voice was faint as she said her next words, fatigue apparent in every word. “Galiena, I’m sorry I didn’t recognize who you were until now. I’m sorry for your loss. That doesn’t change things, though. Your mother's family shielded you from the monster he was. My daughter wasn’t—because I failed her. I was the fool who believed the fantasy of him being the better person than he was. We were both wrong.”

Galiena’s face contorted to a grimace to rival a horror flick. “No—you lie! My father was a great father and sorcerer. He wasn’t interested in children or sex. He was perfect and powerful. He only wanted to be the best to be able to come and get me and raise me.

“It was my grandfather who fooled you. He used to punish me whenever I tried to honor my father’s practice and gift. My grandfather hated everything about him. I had to hide anything about the craft away from him. He was jealous of my love for my father. That’s why he told you those lies.”

“Are you certain they were lies?” Leila’s voice began to waver and falter.

“I don’t owe you an answer for anything.” Spittle flew from Galiena’s mouth as she spat out the words. “ You and your entire family deserve nothing but suffering and death for what you put me through.”

Leila’s body trembled under the force it took to hold her head up, but the woman prevailed to have her last word. “No, Galiena. You were fooled. You, like everyone else, believed the illusion he painted. I did the world a favor by trying with every ounce of will in me to banish his soul to the lower rungs of Hell.”

“No, Mami!” Her world as she’d known it was turned upside down. By now she was on fire from her core outward. Zia’s body spouted water as sweat wept out of every pore. Her mother was too weak to survive Galiena’s attention. Zia had to save her. She was the one who’d made this mess. “Mami please stop talking. She wants me. Stay out of this.”

“Now!” Greg’s command rang loud in the comm as her world turned into ultimate chaos.

Galiena rushed over to grab Zia by surprise. “You’re right, and I’ve got you. It’s time for your punishment.”

Galiena’s touch sent shockwaves of high-voltage power through Zia’s body. Her spine was ablaze with pain as she tried to free herself from the Sorceress’ touch.

Graveled and harsh, the Sorceress spoke without mercy. “You WILL submit to my authority.”

Galiena pressed two fingers into a spot on Zia’s shoulder that made her legs buckle. She caught her footing in time to shove the woman back a few feet. Sizzling energy skipped along her skin and transferred itself onto Zia. The currents skittered along to find her scar. In a jolt of extreme pain, the scar began to glow and pulse like a beating heart. The effect was bold enough to make Zia’s flesh feel like it stretched and tightened in painful contortions.

My baby, that singular thought surged to the forefront. She would do what she could to protect her child.

Galiena was way stronger than her appearance. The woman easily handled Zia’s larger frame. She pushed Zia toward the waiting cage. Without a good grip on the hardwood floors from the smooth soles of her shoes, Zia’s only recourse was to try to get her opponent on the ground.

Willing to fight dirty, Zia grabbed a generous handful of hair and tugged with all her might. Galiena held firm only bending forward a little from the impact. Yet, another sign from the universe that Zia needed to get stronger and exercise.

Galiena continued to push and punch Zia in the gut as they closed the gap between them and the opening of the cage. Determined not to risk the life of her unborn baby, Zia dug in with all her might.

“You dirty slut. How dare you!” Galiena wailed.

Instead of continuing to scuffle, the woman released Zia and stood to stare at her. Next, she began to mumble and make odd gestures with her fingers and body. The sight would have been freaky if it hadn’t been for more alien creatures crashing into the room.

An awareness of a higher order slammed into Zia’s mind to push back her normal thinking. As best she could describe it was like the electricity coursing through her body gave her life and insight instead of death and blindness.

She made a tragic misstep when her eyes closed a little too long to adjust to the information overload. Galiena had once again latched onto her. This time, the Sorceress had grown in strength and held Zia confined within her arms. Unable to move except closer to the cage in the corner, Zia saw the shadiest betrayal imaginable.

Jeremy stood next to that death cage with a wry grin on his face. He clasped the latch to the cage door that Zia was certain he’d opened. Like a faithful but mischievous pet, he stood there and waited for the deposit of Zia’s body to close it.

“Jeremy, you bastard. Don’t you see anything wrong with this?” Zia yelled through her struggle with the aerobically superior Galiena.

Her voice barely cleared the short distance to reach him as the noise of large seven-foot men crashing through a wall of alien warfare erupted in the bedroom.

The Sorceress began to chant unintelligible words as she held Zia’s arms confined to her sides. The more Zia struggled, the stronger Galiena’s grip intensified. Zia looked out into the room to see a tangle of limbs as the Dragofin Clan fought through the hoard of minions and building security. To her dismay, the latter were also alien creatures hellbent on destroying the Dragofin Clan Guardian Warriors.

“Zia, hold on, we’re coming,” Ajax shouted over to her as he dodged the swipe of a creature who looked like a descendant of a rhino.

Too many bodies to count had piled on top of Greg in an attempt to bring him down to the ground. Her heart lurched at the sight.

“No, help Greg. Please?” she begged Ajax as more joined the gang up on her mate.

Galiena continued to chant and sing-song strings of words. Zia’s body was too feverish to make sense of anything else but heat now. She felt like the fire itself as her body burned. She had to break free of Galiena, protect her baby and help her parents to safety.

“Portal of Purgatory, open to my command. Receive this vessel of flesh as your appointed portal. Keep it intact and secured for the use of a great station to the multiverse. Open to me now.”

Zia blinked a few times as the area in front of her began to separate into a swirling mass like a Tilt-A-Whirl carnival ride. Greg and the others drifted away into the swirling tempest as she began to hear herself scream for them to come back. By the time she realized that Galiena had somehow gotten her into the Faraday cage, it was too late.

With a look devoid of any emotion, Jeremy allowed the front of the cage to slam shut in her face. Try as she might to reach the door, a magnet greater than any force imaginable held her to the center of the cage.

“No, my baby, I must save my baby.” Her voice’s projection fell inches before her as the cage shut off communication to anything outside of it as well.

Greg was so close, and yet she knew she was far away. As if through a looking glass, she began to see the distortion of time and space impeding her view of what happened in the room she’d been imprisoned in.

“What’s wrong, Zia?”

Galiena’s voice sounded like the voice of a god in the cage. Just her luck to have this bitch be the control and ruler of her confinement. The curved sides of the enclosure allowed the woman’s voice to take on a stereophonic effect. Zia refused to lose hope. There was always a way through if she was willing to fight for it.

In a defiant proclamation, Zia allowed her calmer self to take over. “I don’t like the contour of your conversation. It’s too dark. When I get out of here, we’ll make some adjustments.”

The laugh was low and throaty and bursting with triumph as Galiena’s voice boomed inside the pod-shaped prison.

“How cute of you to try to be clever and less banal with that comment? I should say you failed miserably. Out of my unfortunate human trait of mercy, I want to let you know that this is the last time you’ll be able to see anything in this world again. Take one last look.”

The words clamped down around Zia like a straight jacket as her view of the room outside began to dim. Unable to overcome the pull of the magnetic force that weighed her down to the spot in the cage, Zia tried to send a neural link to Greg.

Nothing.

The full, thickness of the void made her nauseous. Pressure pressed in as she attempted to scream only to have the sound sucked away into an invisible vacuum.

Like constellations orbiting in an endless black space, Zia viewed the scene from Galiena’s bedroom from a distant plane. Her hand reached out toward Greg as she saw him fight against two intimidating humanoid creatures. He fought for her.

Another failed attempt at a scream evaporated into the vacuum as Galiena walked over to her mother and slapped the woman with force so great Leila’s head popped back. Burning tears scratched an angry trail down Zia’s face as the plume of blood tricked from her mother’s nose.

To her father, Galiena picked his face up and spat, landing a wad of spittle on his nose. The slimy glob slid down and dripped from the tip of his strong and prominent facial feature. Zia forced herself to watch and not turn away as her father remained catatonic.

The version of Zia that craved blood recompense and war pressed forward to see the atrocities Galiena visited on her family. With a stern set of her determination, the vow-like promise that formed scared Zia in its intensity.

Nothing would stop the promise that had been born of pure passion. Zia nodded in the direction of the Sorceress and focused her intention.

With the Goddess as her witness, Zia would rid this plane of this foul reprobate of a human being if it were her last breath. Somehow and some way she would claw her way back to the right this wrong done to all the innocent people as her restitution.

The words formed and gathered life. The power of their command rumbled through her body. Almost visible, Zia envisioned the energy of the words going into the universe and bid their will be done. As far as she was concerned from this moment forward Galiena’s access to earth had expired.

The surety of her proclamations warred with her current reality and thrust Zia into a crisis of existence. The cognitive dissonance jarred her mind into fractures. Here she sat in a cage with no known way to get out, when deep down Zia knew she was capable of so much more.

Her potential to escape the cage floated just out of her reach. There was no one to blame but herself. Zia had been set up to succeed. In hindsight, her advantages were plain as day.

Mated to a wise Gryphon of the Dragofin Clan with access to supreme wisdom, another Siren in Hildy willing and wanting to train her, strategy and precognition insight and advice from Wren and Quinn, and Zia had managed to thumb her nose at all the resources that had been at her fingertips.

She’d been the lackadaisical idiot who’d squandered every chance to prepare for this moment. The degree to which she’d been unprepared and missed the mark condemned her predicament all the more.

Zia was made to walk between the dark and light. Now that the time had come she’d failed miserably.

No time elapsed to give her opportunity to fall into self-pity and loathing. A new danger sprung to life that only Zia could face. In the confines of that cage only inches in front of her face, a serpent that looked to be made of light and electricity crawled into the tight area.

The great and awesome serpent grew to fill every crevice of the cage and in doing so, blocked out everything going on in the bedroom. Zia ceased to breathe or have a need for oxygen as fear hijacked her ability to reason or think. Her concern for the fight was snatched away as the huge snake pressed closer to demand her focused attention.

Her body continued to burn like a living inferno as every survival instinct to run and freeze played havoc on her inability to do anything. The magnetic pull of the cage refused to budge and held her fast to her spot.

Zia lost orientation of the direction of Greg and the others as the cosmic creature held her gaze. When its eyes began to glow with the power of a million stars, Zia gave up trying to do anything but an attempt to survive this encounter. The serpent said nothing as a piercing needle shot up from the base of her neck up through the crown of her head to explode into a new consciousness of being.

Like an alternate rendition of The Wiz, Zia looked around and knew she wasn’t in Atlanta anymore.